Out of Warranty

[jharms]

Thanks all for the input and suggestions.

I called the BMW Customer Hotline and explained the situation. They were empathetic to my cause and since the vehicle was barely over 50K they were going to contact the dealer to research the issue and potentially get the repair covered under warranty. The friendly Customer Care representative led me to believe that as long as it was a warranty eligible repair (in other words, we didn't break it) that it should be covered.

I'm confident that "good" will prevail over evil in this situation. I will not be a happy BMW owner if they deny repairs based on my conversation with BMW "corporate". They were careful not to make any out right commitments, but it surely sounded favorable.

[jharms]

I'm now an irrate customer. BMW North America, after leading me to believe that this would be covered, called me to say that they would not cover the repair. We paid cash for this $70k lemon, but never again. We've had fewer problem with GM products. From now on, BUY AMERICAN. Go for quality! BMW is not quality!!

[alvam]

Originally Posted by jharms

We've had fewer problem with GM products. From now on, BUY AMERICAN. Go for quality! BMW is not quality!!

Really?? I have one GM car (2008 Acadia) and one BMW (2009 335i xDrive) and I have had way more issues with the GMC (Professional Grade?) than the 335. After the HPFP issues were resolved/replaced (under warranty) we had had zero issues with the car and the quality is so much better than the GM it is almost laughable. That's why when our ordered x5 35d comes in in a few weeks the Acadia will be history. With the continual whine from my steering column that they say is "normal" to the car to having my entertainment radio/dvd head replaced 3 times, I have had enough.

Now if were talking about trucks, I have to say buy Ford. I still miss my F-150 and I still may go there again sometime soon, but it definitely WONT be GM.

Good Luck

[jharms]

The quality of our two Chevrolet Suburban’s were superior to our BMW X5. Those were my wife's cars. My last two cars have been Corvettes and they have been flawless. The lunging/acceleration problem that we've had since day one with our X5 (still not resolved) is a safety issue and BMW doesn't acknowledge a problem. Maybe it was just design bugs from the 1st year of the redesigned model. All I know is that our X5 4.8 was a piece of crap.

My wife always wanted a BMW but I wanted to look at the Mercedes or Porsche. Now that my wife has had this BMW, she doesn't want another. Nor do I.

Other problems that we've had...
· Plastic piece between the windows discoloring
· Headlamps frosting over
· Battery discharging
· Moon roof malfunction
· AC not cooling
· Low on oil
· Leather coming loose on seats (multiple times)
· Steering wheel plastic peeling (twice)
· Blinkers quit working (twice)
· Problems with the shifter going from reverse to drive
· Lunging forward when trying to start slowly from a stop. (still a problem)

Probably more but these are what I remember.

Buyer beware!

[alvam]

I hear what you are saying but it just goes to show that my experience with the GM brand (one car in fact) is different than yours and my expericne with my BMW (one car again) is also different than yours. One persons junk is another person's dream. I can only go by my experiences and others I have talked with who have not had great experiences with GM quality, but that doesn't mean the whole lineup is bad. Same for BMW.

When I get my 35d I will judge it based on my experiences and see if this car is as good as I have read. If it's anything like my 335 (even with a minor thing here and there) I am sure I will be happy.

btw.. I love the Round Rock area. I've been to Dell many times for work and probably only other place I would want to live besides CO.

[jharms]

Originally Posted by alvam

I hear what you are saying but it just goes to show that my experience with the GM brand (one car in fact) is different than yours and my expericne with my BMW (one car again) is also different than yours. One persons junk is another person's dream. I can only go by my experiences and others I have talked with who have not had great experiences with GM quality, but that doesn't mean the whole lineup is bad. Same for BMW.

When I get my 35d I will judge it based on my experiences and see if this car is as good as I have read. If it's anything like my 335 (even with a minor thing here and there) I am sure I will be happy.

btw.. I love the Round Rock area. I've been to Dell many times for work and probably only other place I would want to live besides CO.

I wish you luck with your new X5. I hope you have better luck then we did. I agree that it's probably the individual vehicle. I just wish that BMW service would have taken care of us on the seat issue that happened at the end of our warranty period. If they would have, I wouldn't be complaining on this forum (and others in the near future). I do believe in the power of word of mouth advertising, however, and I plan to be BMW's #1 spokes person!

[BGM]

When you buy a 1st year model run you are going to have more problems. I would venture to guess blinkers not working, etc that you had some kind of lemon. Did you buy this car brand new ?

[rh71]

^ definitely sounds like a lot of 1st-year run issues in manufacturing/production. I'm surprised a rattle wasn't in there as well. The lunging thing - was it re-programmed recently because I remember a fix was supposed to have been implemented since '09/10.

[jharms]

Originally Posted by BGM

When you buy a 1st year model run you are going to have more problems. I would venture to guess blinkers not working, etc that you had some kind of lemon. Did you buy this car brand new ?

Not brand new. It had 640 miles on it. We were told that it was used as a courtesy car at a pro golf tournament in Austin. Do you think that we got a "returned lemon"?

[jharms]

Originally Posted by rh71

^ definitely sounds like a lot of 1st-year run issues in manufacturing/production. I'm surprised a rattle wasn't in there as well. The lunging thing - was it re-programmed recently because I remember a fix was supposed to have been implemented since '09/10.

We've had it into the shop around a half a dozen times for the lunging problem. You never know, but I think it's been reprogrammed. I've got a hypothesis that it has a different problem (like a throttle position sensor issue) but they keep following the service bulletins that pertain to our "complaint". I mentioned this the last time I had it in for the lunging problem. When we got it back we were told that the program was up to date. I don't believe they checked anything else. The difficulty in resolving the lunging issue is that it doesn't do it every time. It does occur many times a week, however. It's like you press the peddle down half way when you try and start out slow. It's a serious safety issue. Not to mention a real embarrassment when people are riding with you.